My little Fire Flower: Christmas at Granny Salem's
by Sani2341
Summary: Salem had never even heard of Christmas, but to make her little adopted Granddaughter happy, she would do her best to celebrate it with her.


So this is my entry for Monokub's Christmas Challenge for his Story My Little Fire Flower, I hope you all enjoy it.

* * *

My little Fire Flower: Christmas at Granny Salem's

Omake to Monokub's My Little Fire Flower

by Sani2341

For a few weeks now winter had been starting to set in around Salem's old fortress. The red ground was slowly becoming as white as her Grimm's faces, especially with the few pathways cleared of snow by the few non Grimm inhabitants of her domain. Ruby was currently outside making snow angels with Wolfie, although the large Grimm was not really leaving angel like imprints as she was just rolling around in the snow next to her pup.

Before the white hooded girl could react though, a snowball hit her square in the face, a grinning Neo standing not far away. It took the young girl a moment to get the remainder of the snowball out of her face before she stood up. having scooped up a handful of snow while doing so, Ruby quickly retaliated against the older girl. Or at least she tried to, but the moment she threw the snowball, Wolfie had been chasing after it, catching it out of the air just before it collided with Neo. Of course this meant there was neither time nor room for any of the two to evade the other and so Grimm and girl went tumbling through the snow. Ruby tried to hold it in, but when the now snow covered Wolfie searched desperately for the ball she was sure she had caught, her joyful laughter broke free, echoing over the nearby hills.

When the other girl got up herself, she could not help but join in as Ruby came closer, still snickering.

"Wolfie, that was a snowball, you won't find it. And you were not supposed to chase it."

Looking at her pup, the Grimm's ears and tail hung low in embarrassment, at least until Ruby hugged the big wolf as best as she could, one of her hands sliding along it's fur.

"Now it's okay, just remember it next time."

After this little incident, Wolfie just sat nearby by as the two girls continued their merciless battle of snow. It started innocent enough, but soon each of the girls started using their semblances to one up the other, every other Neo Ruby managed to hit breaking into hundreds of fragments as the snow touched her, while she herself left many trails of rose petals everywhere as she used her own Semblance to dodge every icy missile thrown at her. Their fight continued for quite some time, only really ending when finally both girls were utterly exhausted.

They then made their way back inside and began to search a kitchen stocked with cocoa. It took them longer than Ruby would have liked but when they finally found all necessary ingredients, Neo made her a cup of hot chocolate in record time. Taking their cups back to Ruby's room, they sat down on her small couch and enjoyed the warm beverage and how it warded of the cold that had begun to set in after their lengthy campaign of snowy warfare.

It was this image of the two not-quite sisters snuggling on the couch that greeted Salem as she entered her granddaughter's chambers. Striding forward in a calm and regal manner, her long black gown dragging on the floor, she came to a stop in front of the two girls, but before she could inquire what they had been up to outside in this dreadfully cold weather, young Ruby noticed her and spoke up.

"Hi Granny, say when are we gonna put up the decorations?"

Her utter confusion at this question clearly showed on her white face as she replied.

"Decorations? Whatever for would we need to put up new or different decorations?"

Seeing tears well up in the young girl's eyes Salem realized she had just said something very wrong, but she could not fathom what it was that caused this reaction in the girl, at least until she began to sob out words.

"You *sob* you don't have Christmas here?"

"What is this Christmas?", Salem asked confused, causing Ruby to suddenly stop crying, although the tears did not seem to stop.

"You don't even know what Christmas is?!", Ruby exclaimed shocked, "It's when families come together and give each other gifts to show they appreciate each other, like the old man did for the seasons."

"And what have decorations to do with that?", Salem asked intrigued more by the girls excitement at talking about the celebration than what was celebrated.

"Well to help everyone get into the festive spirit you put up decorations, like little paper snowflakes, evergreen branches and then you get together and bake cookies together and go shopping for gifts for each person you like and - Oh no where do I get a present for Mommy here?", Ruby finished her explanation suddenly as panic set in, after all she had never not given Cinder a Christmas present and just because she was staying with her granny did not mean she would stop doing so.

Salem meanwhile was unable to keep herself from being moved by how much this celebration seemed to mean to the little girl. And so, to calm her down she leaned forward and hugged her a bit before speaking once more.

"If you want I can help you make a present unlike any Cinder got before. We can even invite her over here for this Christmas, but before that we need to get everything here ready so she can enjoy herself right?"

her words seemed to hit the right spot as Ruby quickly calmed down and let out a small "Okay" before the little girl leaned back on her couch, the exhaustion of the day catching up with her as she fell asleep.

After they laid the small girl onto her bed, Salem turned to Neo and spoke in a low whisper so as not to wake the sleeping human.

"So what do we need to do to make my little granddaughter happy?"

A grin spread over the mute girl's face before she began to write on a small white board:

'Step 1: Decorate the hallways: hang up bundles of mistletoe, make little snowflakes and gather evergreen twigs and branches and put them on the walls.'

Giving the Grimm woman a moment to commit it to memory, Neo erased the writing and wrote the next message on it.

'Step 2: When Ruby wakes up bake Cookies with her 3; Step 3: make sure Cinder can come over; Step 4: presents. :) yay'

"Thank you very much, if you could make sure everything is ready to begin baking immediately when Ruby wakes it would be appreciated."

Giving a polite nod, Neo rushed into the kitchen she had just used make hot chocolate for the little girl and herself, taking note of what ingredients for cookies she would need to get from one of the other kitchens or the pantry.

* * *

Salem herself covered herself in a long black furred mantle before she left her home for the first time since winter had started. She moved quickly as she was headed for the closest pack of Beowulfs, arriving before their Alpha shortly, she stared him down until he submitted before his Queen as he should before she spoke up.

"You and your will gather me evergreen trees and branches and bring them to the front entrance of my fortress."

Having received somewhat unorthodox orders from their Queen, the Grimm set out towards the not so nearby Forest. The pack marched for nearly an hour before reaching its outskirts, where the lower members of the pack immediately set of, hoping that bringing back the biggest tree would allow them to rise in prominence and gain favor with their master. And so it came that in the evening, the pack of two dozen brought back 23 trees, not one of them smaller than 6 feet, to the immense satisfaction of Salem.

* * *

While the pack had been scurrying through the forest Neo had her own hunt to complete. As it turned out neither of the kitchens she knew where they were had any flour and so the mute girl had begun the search for the pantry, which had not been near either of the kitchens. After wasting a few hours wandering the dark hallways on her own she literally run into Hazel.

"uff, say what has you in such a hurry girl? Isn't it normally the little tyke in the white cloak that's rushing around like a maniac?", the broad shouldered man asked after making sure Neo wasn't hurt.

'I need to find some flour before Ruby wakes up, pantry where?', she quickly wrote on her white board after hazel had finished his question.

Reading the message, the man stroked through his beard in thought until he spoke up once more.

"I think the pantry should be the second door on the left from here, but why do you want to bake cookies so desperately?"

'Ruby wants to celebrate Christmas, Salem wants to make it the best the girl ever had.'

"Huh, thinking about it I haven't celebrated it since I started working for Salem, would be a nice change of pace, say you want some help carrying all the baking supplies?"

As Neo started Nodding vigorously he lead her to the nearby pantry, where they picked up enough supplies to bake for a full day without pause.

* * *

A the same time, Salem was in one of the few spawning pools inside her fortress where she crafted new Grimm, waiting impatiently for Dr. Watts to arrive. Her nervous pacing came to a sudden halt as the door was opened and the man she had been waiting for entered the chamber, closing the door behind him.

"My lady what is more important than my work on the Virus to hijack the CCT?", he asked with a slight bow towards Salem.

"I require your assistance with creating a new species of Grimm. As Ruby wants to celebrate Christmas I have been informed that we should decorate the hallways with snowflakes and similar wintry things. But without any ice dust, keeping actual snow intact and on the walls would be impossible, so I require you to help make this new type of Grimm as fitting in form for Christmas decorations as possible.", Salem quickly explained to her subordinate. who began twirling his mustache as his eyes lighted up with an idea.

"That is brilliant, if we make them pleasing enough we could give them the ability to see their surroundings and transmit this to us in some way, allowing us to spy on many private homes during this season next year if we sell them as normal decorations."

Not wanting to admit that she had just wanted to spoil her granddaughter, Salem nodded along sagely. "Yes it is a shame that none of you were willing to inform me of such human customs before, we could have been doing this for years, maybe even have some set up in the Academies themselves by now."

"Oh certainly", Watts agreed, "If you want I will write up a dossier of common holidays and Celebrations in the Kingdoms when we are finished here."

"I would be delighted to receive such a document.", Salem replied, absolutely sure not to miss another of Ruby's favorite festivities because she did not know about it. With all needed personnel present and their little conversation finished, Salem began to form the first protoform of her new spies. While the first few tries looked more like chunks of ice or snow ball, soon they took on the shape of what most people thought of when hearing snowflake.

After Watts had informed her that actual snowflakes normally were always different, Salem made sure that the new Grimm would spawn with miniscule aesthetic differences to mimic this as well. When they finished, the Yukkiyuna as Salem dubbed the new Species were all perfect white snowflakes, all with the ability float and hold onto any surface they touched. Sending the first few hundred out to take positions along the Hallways, Salem was relieved that at least the first bit of decorating for their first Christmas was done.

* * *

Cinder was a bit depressed as she walked through Vale. She was on her way to case out the next shop Roman and his goons would try to rob to keep them afloat financially. But her bad mood had nothing to do with it, it came from the fact that every other shop window reminded her of how for as long as ruby could walk, they would be going out and look for presents for every member of their ragtag family and the Belladonnas.

But this year was the first time Cinder would not be spending the holidays with her little flower. it wasn't that she did not want to, she would gladly spent the holidays on the lost continent where Salem's base of operations was located, surrounded by Grimm if it meant being with her girl. But they did not have the Money necessary to make the trip for such a mundane matter at the moment. Finishing gathering every bit of information for Roman she could, she compiled them in a small file which she encrypted and sent to the master thief with her scroll on her way home.

Once she entered the penthouse that seemed so much emptier without her little daughter, Neo and Wolfie, she heard a 'tink, tink tink' coming from the glass door to the balcony. stepping closer she saw a baby nevermore striking the glass with his cute little beak and a piece of paper tied to its leg. Opening the door to let it in, it hopped onto her shoulder and held out the leg with the paper for her. Unfolding the paper it read:

'This nevermore will grow to normal size during the night before Christmas eve, it will carry you to Ruby and myself the next morning to allow you two to celebrate together.'

Burning the paper with a small application of the Dust in her dress, Cinder could barely contain her joy, that is until she realized she would need to get a present for her little girl in the next two weeks.

* * *

Back in Ruby's room the little girl was just waking up. Getting out of her bed she went and took a short shower like mommy had always told her to do before getting dressed for the day. Under her normal skirt and hoodie she put on a set of thicker underwear to keep her warm when she would be spending time outside again with her Sis and Wolfie. As she stepped outside her room it took her a Moment to realize, but when she looked around, each wall was holding snowflakes, some the size of her hand, other as big as her head, with long evergreen branches hung between them. It was so amazing to the little girl that she did not even notice her granny standing before her until she walked right into her legs.

"Good morning Ruby, I take it we did a good job decorating yes?", Salem asked the little girl with a genuine smile on her face. unable to form actual words, Ruby just hugged Salem's legs and nodded.

"Well then come on, Neo's waiting for us in the kitchen."

With that she led the awed girl to the nearby kitchen, where Neo had been ordered to prepare everything they could need to bake some cookies. Once they arrived,Ruby and Neo immediately got to work, with Salem on official Oven and timing duty once the first batch was ready to bake. Even Salem could not help but feel happy despite the activities mundane nature, and she suspected that it was mostly Ruby's infectious joy that lifted her own spirits.

They had a little break for Lunch, after which Hazel came and joined in as well, crushing whole nuts to smaller pieces that would work better with the dough the girls prepared and storing their ever expanding assortment of Cookies in boxes on the various shelves so the girls would not gorge themselves on them as soon as they were cool enough to touch.

When Ruby laid down in her bed that evening she found that maybe Christmas at Granny Salem's could be as much fun as it had been at home, if only her Mommy was here to enjoy herself as well.

* * *

"Good morning Ruby", Salem woke the small girl a few days later.

"Morning", grumbled the still half asleep girl, until she noticed that her granny had come to wake her up personally, at which point she nearly shot out of bed, getting ready for the day as quickly as possible.

"No need for such haste child, I just wanted to wake you to ask if you would like us to make something to send your mother for Christmas.", Salem said, afraid the girl would hurt herself if she kept up this speed. sadly this did not work, because the prospect of working with her granny to make a present for her Mommy just excited the girl even more.

"Yes, Yes oh yes", Ruby shouted as she put on her clothes, finishing with the white cloak she always wore since receiving it from Cinder.

"But what could we make her?", Ruby asked Salem with wide eyes.

"Well I think if you are fine with getting your own present early, I could help you make a little pet Grimm for her.", just as the words had left her mouth, she realized she should have covered her ears when doing so, as the squee the girl before her let loose nearly caused the room's only window to shatter.

"When can we start?", Ruby asked after she managed to regain control over her voice, waiting politely before Salem.

"Right now if you want Ruby."

After a short nod from Ruby they wandered through the beautifully decorated hallways, passing a few trees that reached from floor to ceiling, until they reached a small innocent looking door in the basement. The room behind it was surprisingly bare, as it only contained only a large pool full of the black stuff, Ruby had seen Grimm emerge from more than once while staying with Salem, and a pair of chairs. Waving towards one of them, Salem sat down in the other and waited for Ruby to sit down as well.

"Now when making Grimm it is important to focus on what they should be. When you have the mental image of the creature you want to create set in your thoughts, you just touch your hand to the pool like this.", following along with her own explanation, Salem focused on the image of a palm sized Beowulf and held her hand flat onto the surface of the pool,

"Then you will the Grimm to take form beneath your hand , then when you feel it brushing against your palm you grab onto it and pull it gently out.", pulling her own hand back she revealed the little Beowulf puppy she created.

"Now don't be dismayed if the first few attempts don't turn out like you hoped, after all even I need some tries to get more complex species right when first creating them."

Giving a short nod to signal she had understood the question, Ruby slipped of her seat and kneeled before the pool. She stayed absolutely still for a moment before holding her hand over the pool like her granny had shown her. Grabbing whatever she was creating shortly afterwards , she was dismayed when she only pulled out a writhing mass of Tentacles. Seeing the girls sad frown Salem spoke up once more.

"Now I am not sure what you wanted to make, but even so the fact that it can actually move is remarkable for your first ever attempt. Just go on and try it once more."

With this encouragement Ruby began to try once more and again after that until she finally got it just like she had imagined it.

"Huh that is quite the idea you had there Ruby, I am sure your mother will love it."

* * *

Cinder was excited, only one short intercontinental Nevermore ride stood between her and her little girl. She was currently in the Emerald Forest and waiting for the little Nevermore to grow to full size. Okay maybe she was a bit nervous about the prospect of traveling over sea on the back of a Grimm,or even more than a bit, but if it meant she could be with her Ruby this evening, she would endure it, how uncomfortable it might get.

It sounded really painful to Cinder, but if the bird like Grimm actually felt any with all the cracking coming from it's body it did not show it. half an hour later, she was standing next to a giant Nevermore, which was laying down to allow her to board so to speak. Proving how much foresight Salem could show, the Nevermore had even grown hand and footholds out of the same white bone like material that covered its face. Holding onto them, Cinder was relieved that eh bird was not flying as fast as it presumably could, making for a somewhat comfortable ride.

It took the bird most of the day to cross the ocean at this pace, but just after darkness had fallen it sat down before Salem's fortress. Cinder slid down its side and rubbed its beak in appreciation before she made her way through the Entrance, after which she was immediately stunned by the amount of decorations hung along the hallways. She had never seen Salem put up any kind of Holiday decoration and now every wall was hung with evergreen branches and what seemed to be snowflake Grimm. Following the sounds of laughter and conversation, she slowly made her way from door to door, until she arrived in front of a living Room, knocking on the door to not interrupt anything.

* * *

Ruby had been enjoying the evening so far, they had eaten a surprisingly nice dinner prepared by Hazel which had been followed by some of the cookies they had made the weeks before for desert. When they had all worked together to clean the kitchen Hazel had used, and they had eaten in, the group of four had moved to a nearby living room where Dr. Watts was already waiting in an armchair, next to him one of the trees that stood in some of the corners of the hallways, their presents sitting beneath it.

After taking their places on nearby seat and a couch, they took turns handing out their presents, until only one remained beneath the tree, the Grimm Ruby had made for her mother. Ruby was just admiring the set of tools she had gotten from Watts and Hazel, as a short knock came from the door. When she moved to open it, Salem held her back for a moment and handing her the last present form beneath the tree.

"Here I think you will need this when the door is open.", Salem suggested cryptically as she sent Ruby of towards the door, present in hand. When she opened the door, the little cloaked girl could not believe her small silver eyes. There standing before her was her mommy.

Tears of joy dripping from her eyes She hold out the present to Cinder.

"Merry Christmas Mom", Ruby managed to say, and as soon as the present was out of her hands, she hugged her mom as tight as she could.

* * *

Petting her daughter's hair with her free hand, Cinder spoke up,"Merry Christmas to you too, now come I am sure everyone would like to see what is inside your present. Holding each other, mother and daughter moved towards the four waiting people. After Cinder sat down on the couch with Ruby on her lap, she unwrapped her daughter's gift to reveal what looked like a black and white casing for her scroll, although the texture seemed somehow familiar, she could not put down what it was made from.

"Thank you Ruby, but what is it made of?"

"They are a pair of Grimm, they can use your scroll for you and will bring it back to you if you lose it."

Seeing her little girls proud smile, she had one question on her mind, "How?"

"You just put them over the sides of your scroll like a normal cover and when they need to do something they slip out small tentacles to dial numbers or move the whole thing.", Ruby explained cheerfully, although that was not what Cinder wanted to know so she turned to Cinder and repeated the question.

"I taught her of course, I needed to give her something to Christmas, after all your visit was the gift I had prepared for you.", not quite sure what to make of the Grimm woman's answer either, Cinder decided to just let it go and enjoy the evening with most of her family.


End file.
